News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Jackson County Commission approved adding air MedCare insurance coverage for county employees.
Mayor Randy Heady said that without a trauma hospital in the region, all patients are life-flighted to the closest one such as Vanderbilt. He said while it doesn’t happen often, when it does those costs can get up to $70,000.
“It’s a really good benefit, it’s not very expensive, so we wanted to give that as a retention and also as a recruitment,” Heady said. “It’s something that the county offers, it costs them nothing, it’s the same thing if you would that you’re trying to do is give them something that they wouldn’t have if they weren’t working for you.”
Heady said that the care costs about $7,800, and is available in the budget. He said that the coverage will include all 120 county employees and those in their households.
“I want to be able to offer something that would give them to want to stay,” Heady said. “We provide life insurance for our county employees and that’s at minimal dollars when you’re talking about 120 people that you’re covering, so this is the same deal with this medical insurance for an air evac, if you had to evacuate someone with a helicopter to get medical services. It’s a small amount of money for how many households we’re covering, so we just feel like it was a win.”
